270 ANNUAL REPOKT 



Currants were badly blighted. Blackberries were laid down 

 and bore pretty well. Stone's Hardy and Ancient Briton were 

 the only ones in bearing. Some hills of Briton were as heavily 

 loaded with fine fruit as any bushes I ever saw, and I believe 

 they will prove as productive as our enthusiastic Wisconsin 

 friends claim them to be. I obtained about two hundred quarts, 

 and many of them were engaged by customers before they were 

 ripe at a good price, people were so afraid they would not get 

 them. 



My greatest need is a blackberry that will ripen two weeks 

 earlier than the Briton and productive enough for profit. One 

 trouble in growing blackberries is the high winds which blow 

 them down and destroy the young growth. To be profitable, 

 stakes and wire must be used, or they must be cut back. 



Wild plums and crab apples were a failure, nearly all blight- 

 ing. Standard apple trees have about all gone to the brush heap, 

 and if there are a few lonely ones left they will soon die of a 

 broken heart. Grape vines were well loaded, but few got ripe. 



The crop of potatoes was the best for years. Onions the same. 

 Cabbages good and free from worms. Other vegetables fine. 



The display of vegetables at our county fair was large and fine. 



There are those among us who are disposed to criticise the 

 management of our fairs. It does us little good to see a big 

 pumpkin or a mammoth squash unless we can learn something of 

 the manner in which it was grown. It does little good to see 

 farmer A's fine horse worth two hundred dollars, or to hear that 

 he obtained fifty bushels of oats per acre, unless we can learn 

 something of his management. Hence there seems to be a demand 

 for more agricultural instruction, and, I might say, less politics, 

 fakirs and fast horses at our fairs. As our fairs are now con- 

 ducted a single issue of a good agricultural paper, like Farm 

 Stock and Home, gives more good practical information than all 

 the fairs in the state. 



This should be changed, and when a man makes a fine exhibit 

 he should be required to state how it was obtained. Make of the 

 fairs a school of agricultural information and I have no doubt 

 farmers will take much more interest in them. 



There is also a feeling among our farmers that (in view of the fact 

 that the agricultural school recently established is largely under 

 the control of the board of regents of the state university, and 

 that many of the university students come from the farms) they 

 should have a larger representation on the board of regents. 



